Signing a cell phone contract is a big commitment. Service providers offer 24-month contracts with a variety of phones and packages. Sometimes, it can be a difficult decision to make. It’s a decision best not made in haste.

Trying to get out of a contract is an expensive affair. That’s why it’s important to make sure you choose the one that will suit your needs for the next 2 years.

Here are some factors to consider when choosing your cell phone contract:

When you sign a two-year cell phone contract the cost of the phone is heavily subsidised. The more expensive the contract, the higher the subsidy. As a result, people often do not appreciate the true value of their phone until something happens and they need to replace it.

A top of the range phone will cost close to R20 000 to replace and the average phone is around R 10 000. Sure, there are less expensive phones available but that means you are going to have to wait out the remainder of your contract with an inferior phone should something happen to the handset. Given how reliant we are on our phones these days for work and leisure, sacrificing the quality and features of the latest phone is not a pleasant experience.

The evolution of the smartphone has been incredible. They have become faster, more powerful and much more useful. We depend on them for a wide range of tasks and functions and many of these work through apps.

As data has become faster the apps have become more powerful and more useful. The downside to this is many apps drain our data plans quickly. While data has come down in price it is still fairly expansive in South Africa and unnecessary data usage can be a costly mistake.

It is no secret that mobile data costs in South Africa have always been high. Consumers have been complaining for some time and this recently came to a head in 2017 with the #DataMustFall movement. Finally, parliament listened and started to put pressure on governing body ICASA to implement changes. To an extent, this has happened but there is still a long way to go.

For many people, international dialing is a bit confusing and sometimes frightening. Most often, the person you are trying to contact will give you their international number which you can simply dial without having to think about it. If, however, you have the local number of someone in another county, you might have to do a bit of investigation.

You may have read in the media or overheard people at social events talking about going overseas for a holiday or a business trip only to return to find their cell phone bills running into thousands of Rands, much to their shock and disbelief.

Taking and using your cell phone overseas, commonly called international roaming, is one of the fastest ways to rack up an extremely high cell phone bill. It is difficult to keep track of and even know what your cell phone bill will add up to.